From staff reports
As schools open up this week prepared for the risk of COVID-19, the Burton Fire District also helped prepare their schools for the risk of school violence.
The Burton Fire District, along with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, visited six of the seven public schools in the Burton district last week during teacher training to educate them on responding to school violence and providing emergency care to injured students. There are plans to visit the seventh school early this school year.
As part of the training, Staff Sgt. Danny Allen of the BCSO presented a brief CRASE (Civilian Response to Active Shooting Events) class to teachers. As part of this training, Allen educated teachers on techniques to avoid, deny, and defend should an active shooting event happen in their school, while Burton firefighters also trained teachers on how to treat critical injuries until professional responders arrive.
Prior to each training session, Burton fire crews installed over 300 JACOB’S Kits throughout the six schools, providing each teacher with a bleeding control kit for their classroom to use in the event of an emergency.
As part of the Burton Fire District’s community risk reduction program, Burton fire officials continually analyze community risks and design programs to teach the public how to prevent and respond to emergency situations.
Burton fire officials state that a school shooting is a “low frequency, high risk event,” and while the school district’s focus is currently on COVID, the fire district was happy to support their student safety programs and policies by providing this training to them as well.
